Political realignments underway ahead of Iraq’s 2018 electoral race spell greater dangers for a country desperate to break the chains of stagnancy that over the past decade have stunted growth and progress. A weak state comprised of institutions barely operational has seen the rise of militia forces belonging to the Popular Mobilisation Crowd (PMU) seeking to permanize their presence within Iraq’s political process.

Their victories in formerly held Islamic State (IS) territories have fuelled demands which if accepted, place armed forces — including the conventional army — on equal footing with irregular militia outfits. Important differences such as centralised control, discipline, chains of command, professionalism are expected to collapse beneath an agenda that aims to institutionalise as well as normalize the role of amateur militia forces in politics.

Their emergence extends back to June 2014 when revered Shi’i Marji Ayatollah Ali al Sistani issued an edict urging men of the country to defend their nation and shrines. What few note is that Sistani’s religious ruling was in fact empty of pronouncements that determine the organisation’s lifetime.

​Furthermore, the emergence of parallel force that has contributed to the fragmentation of the army was not something the edict endorsed. In spite of the group’s increasing tally of victories, their recent and unignorable abuses perpetrated throughout ‘liberations Ops’ haunts a significant portion of Iraqis, and next year's vote opens up another crack from which they can muscle their way into Iraq’s political process.

Reinforced in January 2014 in response to the need for information on displacement linked to the worsening armed conflict, the DTM programme in Iraq collects key information on internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees through different components and methodologies across the entire country.Through IOM’s Rapid Assessment and Response Teams (RARTs) –composed of 140 field staff– present throughout the Iraqi territory, the DTM collects data on numbers and locations of IDPs and returnees using an extended network of over 4,000 Key Informants. In addition to information collected from key informants, identified locations hosting IDPs are then visited and directly assessed by the RARTs to collect more detailed and in-depth information on the displaced population.

Despite coming in for criticism at various points during his short tenure in charge of Iraq, Prime Minister Haider Abadi victories over the Islamic State has earned him public respect — but who from?

Journalists in the west refer to the man of the hour as a ‘moderate’, ‘secular’ and ‘patriotic’ leader. When woven together, these words thinly veil Abadi’s political promiscuity.

It seems that the growth of sectarian incidents, home demolitions, corruption and the rise of paramilitaries and militias fall outside the scope of their analysis.​In the space of less than a week Abadi visited Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey, three rival powers in the region that want to put their sticky fingers in the Iraqi pie.